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Russian President Vladimir Putin and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe watch a judo tournament on the sidelines of the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok on September 12, 2018. Photo: Reuters

Putin proposes Russia and Japan sign historic peace treaty this year

Shock suggestion came during the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, but some analysts say it’s probably not going to happen

Russian President Vladimir Putin suggested on Wednesday that Russia and Japan sign a peace treaty this year, ending second world war hostilities “without any preconditions” as a territorial dispute has led to decades of deadlock.

The dispute between Russia and Japan centres on four islands in the strategically-located Kuril chain, which the Soviet Union occupied at the end of war in 1945 but are claimed by Japan. It has kept the two countries from signing a peace accord.

File photo of former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev walking near Soviet-era fortifications on one of the Kuril islands. Photo: AFP

“We have been trying to solve the territorial dispute for 70 years. We’ve been holding talks for 70 years,” Putin said at an economic forum in the far eastern Russian city of Vladivostok attended by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and President Xi Jinping.

“Shinzo said, ‘Let’s change our approaches.’ Let’s. Let’s conclude a peace agreement, not now but by the year’s end without any preconditions,” Putin said, prompting the audience to break into applause.

Putin’s sudden proposal came just two days after he said the dispute was unlikely to be settled soon.

“It is not a joke,” Putin added, suggesting the two countries commit to solving the territorial dispute in the text of the peace deal.

Abe, President Xi Jinping and Putin at the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok on September 12, 2018. Photo: Reuters

Putin said the conclusion of such a deal would create a better atmosphere and allow Russia and Japan to “continue to solve all outstanding issues like friends”.

“It seems to me that this would facilitate the solution of all problems which we have not been able to solve during the past 70 years.”

The Japanese prime minister said the two countries “have a duty to future generations”.

“Let us walk together mindful of the questions, ‘If we don’t do it now, then when?’ And ‘if we don’t do it, then who will?’,” Abe said. “We are both fully aware that it will not be easy.”

Putin and Abe watching the judo tournament. Photo: EPA

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the two leaders had not yet discussed Putin’s proposal, Interfax news agency reported.

But a Japanese government spokesman said the country’s stance had not changed.

Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said a treaty with Russia would be signed “after resolving the issue of the attribution of the Four Northern Islands”, referring to the disputed territory.

File photo of the town of Kurilsk on the island of Iturup. Photo: AFP

On Monday, Putin had seemed to pour cold water on suggestions that the dispute could be solved soon.

“It would be naive to think that it can be solved quickly,” Putin said after meeting Abe on the sidelines of the forum.

Some diplomats said Putin’s proposal was a non-starter.

A former Russian deputy foreign minister, Georgy Kunadze, said he doubted Putin wanted to solve the territorial problem in earnest.

File photo of a Russian Orthodox cross next to a Japanese gravestone at a cemetery outside Kurilsk town on the island of Iturup. Photo: AFP

“This is called trolling. Putin does not expect anything,” Kunadze told Echo of Moscow radio station.

He suggested Abe would never accept a deal that would be political suicide.

Alexander Gabuev, head of the Russia in the Asia-Pacific programme at the Carnegie Moscow Centre, suggested Putin’s seemingly off-the-cuff proposal was a sign of frustration at the dearth of Japanese investment.

“This appears to be just emotions and an attempt to put pressure rather then anything real,” he said.

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